1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication terminals, and specifically to communication terminals which can be used in radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, and information processing systems including the communication terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
To date, as article management systems, RFID systems have been developed that perform non-contact communication between reader/writers that generate electromagnetic induction fields and wireless tags that are attached to articles and contain predetermined information, thereby transmitting information. As an example of such RFID systems, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-99184 discloses an information processing system in which, by integrating an RFID device (wireless IC tag) into an input pen, an information processing apparatus (reader/writer) reads information from the RFID device and recognizes the user of the pen or characters written by the pen when the RFID device is within a communication range of the information processing apparatus.
However, in the information processing system described above, because operation requires that the RFID device (wireless IC tag) be within a communication range of the reader/writer and because a communication range in the HF band or UHF band is short, there is a problem in that communication is possible only over a very short distance.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-240217 discloses an inventory management system, for inventory management in a book store, including a plurality of handy terminals that communicate with a master station. However, the handy terminal, which includes a battery and a signal processing circuit, has a complex configuration and a large size.